Chasing Lights
by Schizophrennic Muffin
Summary: Alex Rider had often heard of people having near death experiences. They would wake up finding themselves following a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel. He never expected to have one of his own, until he joined MI6... One-shot by Choco Muffin


A/N: Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. It's been busy around here. Well, hopefully the next chapter of Touched will be out soon. And How to Annoy Sabina and/or Alan Blunt will be next. Until then, here's a little one-shot I wrote when I was sick from school one day. Note: when I get sick, I go through an angry emo stage, so this may be kind of glum. Note 2: this is all about NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES not DEATH. But there is an excellent story about Alex Rider's Death titled Last Impressions back where you came from! GO READ AND REVIEW! Anyway, I hope you like both of them.

**Disclaimer!! I do not own Alex Rider. Anthony Horowitz does. Lucky, lucky man.**

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**Chasing Lights**

Alex Rider had often heard of people having near death experiences. People would often awake to find themselves separated from their bodies and following a bright light through a dark tunnel. He never expected to have one of his own, of course, until he first joined MI6.

After that, he wasn't sure of anything. Any day MI6 could choose to employ him. Any day an enemy could decide that they would benefit from having him dead. Any day Scorpia could decide to exact their revenge on the teen spy.

That day came too soon.

Alex remembered the feeling of death all too well. First, it was a brief feeling of fear and cold despair. Then it turned to an almost unnatural euphoric sensation.

He felt relaxed. The weight of world lifted off his shoulders. The aches and pains from every single mission, the headaches, the nightmares, the _scars_; they were all gone.

Forever.

He had never been much of a person of faith, but now he thought he should believe in an afterlife. A limp, pale and bloodied body that was once his had been carried into an ambulance, but that was all irrelevant now. Alex saw it.

The light. The fabled light at the end of a dark tunnel. It was real. It _had_ to be. He could see it clearly, but the whole thing had a slightly surreal air. He couldn't see, or feel, any part of his body yet he seemed to be moving forward slowly. _Towards the light_?

The last great decision he would ever make, he realized; the glum truth hitting him hard. He was dead. It was true: sometimes, he would try to determine if death was better than his life as he knew it. Death was just easier. No more worrying, no more fear and the fate of the world would never again hang on his shoulders. Just peacefulness and rest.

But living was _living_. So many people loved and cared for him. He couldn't let that go to waste. Jack had always loved him like a mother would. Tom and Sabina both knew his secrets and loved him still. Wolf, Smithers and even Mrs. Jones wouldn't want him to die. They had tried to help him.

So he should fight the light. He shouldn't succumb to death so easily! But at the same time, the tranquility of it all made him long to continue the lone journey.

It was just so hard.

In the end, the decision was made for him. He awoke from the dream of light to a steady beeping noise and low voices muttering incomprehensible words. Alex's better judgment would have told him to run, but all the pains of the living world hit him like a freight train. He suddenly remembered he had been shot. Even if he didn't remember, the intense pain in his chest was enough for him to guess. The fact that he was alive hinted to him that he was in MI6's hands, safe for the moment, and the pain and recollection was cut short by welcome blackness.

When Alex came to for good, he was almost blinded by dozens of particularly bright colors. By the time his vision had cleared, the splotches of color slowly became cards. He saw one from Jack, one from Tom, and Wolf, Mrs. Jones, Smithers, his school; it almost seemed that everyone who knew the name Alex Rider had written him a card.

For days he read the cards, each one unique yet the same. Sometimes, the boy in the next room would talk to him. His name was Paul Drevin, and Alex liked him well enough. Sometimes, Jack would stop by and give him some new snack or energy drink. But most of the time, he just thought and rested.

He had a lot of time to think. Sometimes he thought about Scorpia, and what they would do next and other times he would think about MI6. But for the most part, he thought about what happened to him.

When the pain in his chest worsened and his entire body throbbed from the aftereffects of the bullet, he would often wish he had died. But when he woke up, came to his senses, and read the cards, or when he would find Jack standing before him, smiling, he realized something.

Life is for living. He shouldn't waste it chasing the light at the end of the tunnel.

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A/N: See? Happy Ending. Not as emo as it could be. Thank you for reading! Review PULEEZE!!

The Crazy Idiotic Genius, Choco Muffin.


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